Ken Borland

Kagiso Rabada has just one IPL team on his portfolio – the Delhi Capitals – but notwithstanding his loyalty to them, the fast bowler said on Thursday that the Proteas are his first priority and he will probably have to miss the first week or so of this year’s T20 extravaganza in India.

The Delhi side, which was originally known as the Delhi Daredevils before a name change ahead of the 2019 IPL, were runners-up in last year’s competition, with Rabada playing a key role as the leading wicket-taker in the competition. He has unsurprisingly been retained for this year’s edition, at a salary of $575 000.

But the Capitals have expressed some anxiety about his availability this year as fixture-starved South Africa are hosting a white-ball series against Pakistan from April 2-16. Although the dates for the IPL have not yet been officially confirmed, it is believed likely that there will be some overlap.

“In terms of the IPL, my country comes first. It looks like I might miss about a week of the IPL, but the Proteas are my priority. That being said, Delhi is my home in India. They’re the only team I’ve played for in the IPL and they have looked after me really well,” Rabada said on Thursday.

While Rabada has stayed with Delhi since 2017, other leading South Africans have moved around: Faf du Plessis has played for Chennai and Pune; Quinton de Kock has played for four different franchises as have Chris Morris and Dale Steyn.

CSA’s director of cricket Graeme Smith said earlier this week that no definite decision had been taken yet over when the Proteas would be released because they were still waiting for the IPL dates to be confirmed.

The 25-year-old Rabada is now with the Imperial Lions side in Durban preparing for the CSA T20 Challenge which starts on Friday with the Titans playing the Knights and the Dolphins taking on the Cape Cobras. The Lions, who won the CSA T20 Challenge the last time it was held in 2018/19, start their campaign on Saturday against the Warriors. The entire tournament is being held at Kingsmead.

The Lions certainly have the firepower to be considered one of the favourites with Rabada leading a bowling attack that includes fellow Proteas in pacemen Dwaine Pretorius, Beuran Hendricks, Wiaan Mulder and Lutho Sipamla and the left-arm spinners Bjorn Fortuin and Aaron Phangiso.

“We’re going to be up against some really good opposition, it’s going to be a stiff challenge with the majority of the Proteas back. We saw in the Mzansi Super League that we have some great cricketers in this country and that was a competition I really enjoyed. This is also going to be awesome for South African cricket and it’s going to be well-contended.

“There’s always a lot of banter in the Proteas squad because we are always representing our franchises, for instance I’ll chirp the Cape guys that the Cobras haven’t won anything for a while. It shows how much pride there is when the Proteas go back to the franchises and I think everyone will see that in this competition. I always put pressure on myself, but it’s not a given that I’m just going to roll the opposition,” Rabada said.

The Proteas don’t seem to be close to resolving who their Test captain should be, which certainly seems to be negatively impacting the performance of the struggling outfit, but I guess knowing who definitely shouldn’t be the skipper is a step in the right direction though.

Sadly for one of South African cricket’s favourite sons, Quinton de Kock has produced a pretty open-and-shut case for why he should not be captain as he has scored just 74 runs in six innings at an average of only 12.33 since taking the reins. A struggling batting line-up that had become used to De Kock bailing them out really cannot afford the flow of runs from his dashing blade to be stopped like that.

The 28-year-old wicketkeeper/batsman is just too valuable to not have playing well and whatever is hindering him from producing his usual world-class performances needs to be removed from his burden.

There is no shame in him standing down: He took on the job with some reluctance but out of a sense of duty as a senior player in a rebuilding side. For me, there are parallels with the great Hashim Amla, who relinquished the captaincy in January 2016 because he felt the team would be better served by him focusing on his batting.

In his press conferences, De Kock certainly does not seem to be enjoying the captaincy (although bubble life is probably also not making him happy) and personality-wise he is never going to be the sort of skipper who inspires through rousing speeches and being demonstrative out on the field. Sometimes his head doesn’t even seem to be in the game, such is his laidback demeanour.

So who are they going to appoint as the new Test captain? ‘When are the Proteas going to be playing Test cricket again?’ is probably the question that needs to be answered first though. As things stand, there are no confirmed Tests for the rest of the year.

But it seems obvious the new leader is going to come from one of three, maybe four, candidates – Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma, Dean Elgar or Rassie van der Dussen.

Whoever gets the job, they are going to need to bring new energy, intensity and fight to the team. The kind of enthusiasm that the new-look T20 side showed at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, even though they made mistakes and ended up losing to the home side by three runs.

The answer to the old question about whether leaders are born or made is pretty clear to me: sure, the leadership skills of someone can be improved by the right programs and mentors, but the innate ability to lead is either there or it is not. The best captains are those who truly enjoy and embrace the role, and the troops respond to the assuredness that is projected. The team will have direction.

Who is the captain-elect who has the loyalty of the whole team? Who is ready for the burden and will flourish under it, lifting the team’s performances at the same time?

Is it Markram, who has been groomed and anointed as the future skipper ever since he led the SA U19s to the World Cup title? The determination of the 26-year-old is clear as the runs have mercifully started flowing again after a tough couple of years.

Or is it Bavuma, the talisman of the team is so many ways and the face of the hopes of millions of cricket fans? The tenacity and energy he shows can only be inspirational.

What of Elgar, the senior statesman, the reliable one, the guy who constantly puts his body on the line on the field and is one of the biggest characters in the changeroom?

Or Van der Dussen, the relatively new face, still making his way in Test cricket but who exudes the sort of calm and composure that is also vital in the make-up of a leader?

We wait with bated breath for whoever the successor is going to be. They will carry our hopes as the Proteas try and re-establish themselves as a world power, it is going to be a very tough job with so many external challenges, and whoever gets the captaincy is going to need the support of the whole country.

But South Africa has a proud cricketing heritage that needs to be restored by this man, whoever it ends up being.

Proteas coach Mark Boucher said he was pleased with the bravery of the South African batting line-up despite their faltering performances in the T20 series which saw them crash to 65 for seven in the decisive third match on Sunday and ultimately lose by four wickets.

The Proteas only made a match of the third T20 thanks to David Miller’s tremendous 85 not out off 45 balls, one of the best innings of his long career, taking them to 164-8. Miller’s defiant knock was only South Africa’s second half-century of the series with opener Reeza Hendricks being the only other batsman to pass 50. Miller was also the only Proteas batsman to score more than 100 runs in the series.

“We’ve played some good cricket this series, been in strong positions but just not been able to pull it off. The second game [which they won by six wickets] is the brand of cricket we want to play. we showed more intent, especially with the bat. We need to be more proactive and not reactive, we need the bravery we showed in that second match.

“But today we needed to be more smarter, although we were in trouble and we still managed to get a decent total, we were in the game until the last couple of overs. But losing four wickets in three overs in this game put us under lots of pressure. But David Miller played a great knock and it was good to see him back in the runs,” Boucher said.

The fact that South Africa were in the game defending 165 was largely thanks to the outstanding spin bowling of Tabraiz Shamsi, who took a career-best four for 25. But from needing 47 off the last five overs when Shamsi finished his four overs, Pakistan sped to victory with eight balls remaining and batsmen seven and eight at the crease.

South Africa’s quick bowlers were poor, with Dwaine Pretorius conceding 33 runs in three overs, Lutho Sipamla 23 in two and Andile Phehlukwayo having 37 runs bashed off his 2.4 overs. And it is not an isolated incident because over the last couple of years South Africa have conceded the second-most runs in the last four overs of T20 Internationals.

“We’re bowling a lot of yorkers in training and the death bowling is something we continue to work at. There was a lot of dew tonight so it was difficult and Pakistan’s death bowling wasn’t particularly good either to be fair. We want quite a few options for the death and the only way that is going to happen is by putting guys in that situation.

“Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje have shown in the IPL that they are fantastic at the death and so we’ve tried out one or two other options in this series. The way Dwaine Pretorius bowled in the second game was fantastic and it’s something we will keep working on and hopefully get better at, we’re working hard on it in training,” Boucher said.

Not making use of the facilities at your disposal is one of the serious crimes of the sporting world, and Proteas captain Heinrich Klaasen said his team wasting a handful of their 20 overs cost them the match in the first T20 against Pakistan and is what they have to put right in the games on Saturday and Sunday in Lahore if they are to win the series.

South Africa fell three runs short in the first T20 in a gutsy effort, but they would have expected to chase down 170 on a good pitch for batting. But having been 51 without loss after the six powerplay overs, the Proteas then lost their way, but the next six overs saw them slip to 83 for three, leaving them to score 87 runs off 48 balls. Which was too steep a task.

“I thought that Pakistan were 10 runs short and I was very happy with our effort in the field and to be chasing 170. But it was just four or five overs in the middle where we made life very difficult for ourselves. Usman Qadir bowled two overs and had two for four in that middle phase and that put us on the back foot in the middle overs.

“Hopefully we can lift our intensity in that middle phase and then we’ll get over the line. Our standards are high, we don’t like losing although we played a good game of cricket. One or two bowling things didn’t go to plan, we need to reassess one or two overs, but I was generally very pleased with how the bowling went, and I was quite pleased with the fielding, but not the two dropped catches at the end,” Klaasen said after his first match as Proteas captain.

Among the positives in the batting was that Janneman Malan and Reeza Hendricks came off as an opening pair. Malan blazed his way to 44 off 29 balls before becoming Qadir’s first victim as he was made to look silly by a superb delivery, while Hendricks batted as the anchor and made it through to the 18^th over, scoring 54 off 42 balls. Some critics have described Hendricks’ innings as being too slow, but with wickets tumbling at the other end he obviously saw his role as being to bat for as long as possible until someone could form another partnership with him.

“I was very happy with the start and Reeza only faced 12 balls in the first seven overs, so Janneman was always going to score more quickly. Unfortunately Janneman got out when we could have completely taken the powerplay away from them, then we lost the game between overs seven and 10. We didn’t do too badly tonight, but we just slipped up in the crucial moments.

“But that’s part of the learning process and the key this weekend is to be patient and take control of those moments. Hopefully the new guys will use the opportunity to showcase their skills, we need to be adaptable and we will chop and change a few things,” Klaasen said.